如何减轻工作压力（一）

Is there an antidote¹ to anxiety? "I'm very frightened," said Julie White. But she has a remedy: the stretching and deep breathing of yoga. The practice is so calming that after the terror upgrade, White made an upgrade of her own--from one class a day to two. she says, "Yoga is my tranquilizer."

我们有没有对付焦虑的良药呢？“我非常害怕，”Julie White说。不过，她有应付之道：瑜伽术的肢体伸展和深呼吸。这一练习可以使她平静下来，效果极佳，以至当恐怖升级以后，White将她的练习也升了级——从一天一次课到一天两次。她说：“瑜伽是我的镇定剂。”

You may find the lotus pose hopelessly warm and fuzzy in the face of terror. But there are a host of activities, from working out to going for a massage², that can temper the anxiety. Many of these techniques have been used for decades, if not centuries; now advances in science are showing they can reduce the hormones³ associated with stress and even affect brain activity. The common trait among all: maintaining control and recognizing that our concerns are a natural response to the world we live in.

你可能会觉得，面对恐怖，打莲花坐不会有效果。但是很多活动都可以缓解焦虑，从锻炼到按摩。这些技巧有很多已使用了几十年，甚至数百年；现在，随着科学的进步，它们能减少与焦虑有关的荷尔蒙含量，甚至能影响大脑活动。所有这些方法的共同点：保持控制，并认识到担心只是我们对我们所生活的这个世界的一种自然反应。

The first step toward combating fear is identifying it. Keep in mind that headaches, stomachaches, sleeplessness⁴ and rapid heartbeat are all symptoms of anxiety. Confront the emotion head-on by naming it, even saying, "I feel fear about this," says Saki Santorelli, executive director of the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Center for Mindfulness. Acknowledging anxiety makes us less passive, less vulnerable and, as a result, more able to cope.

要与恐惧斗争，首先要认识恐惧。要记住头疼、胃疼、失眠和心跳加速都是焦虑的症状。麻省大学医学院心神贯注研究中心执行主任Saki Santorelli说，应该通过说出来，甚至通过说出“我害怕这个”，来勇敢地面对这种感觉。承认焦虑可以使我们变得更积极、更坚强，因而也就更能对付它。

Understand that fear is a component⁵ of stress, the complex fight-or-flight response ingrained in us since the cave days. When we're confronted with danger, epinephrine (adrenaline) starts pumping, the heart speeds up, blood pressure increases, breathing quickens.

要明白恐惧是压力的一个组成部分，它是一种与穴居时代俱来的“要么对抗，要么逃跑”的复杂反应。当我们遭遇危险时，肾上腺素就会大量分泌，心跳加速，血压升高，呼吸变快。

One of the most efficient ways to reduce stress is to focus inward on one thing we can effectively control: our own breath. At the Mind/Body Medical Institute, participants elicit⁶ a "relaxation⁷ response," repeating a word - anything from "om" to "Hail Mary"--silently as they exhale⁸. In numerous studies, Benson has found that the practice leads to lower blood pressure, slower breathing and an overall calm.

减轻压力最有效的办法之一就是将注意力集中到我们可以有效控制的东西上——我们自己的呼吸。在头脑-身体医学院，参加者通过呼气时反复轻声默念一个单词（任何单词，可以是"om"或"Hail Mary"），来达到一个“放松的反应”。通过许多次研究，Benson发现该练习可以使参加者血压降低，呼吸变缓，从而达到全身的平静。

Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently found that a form of meditative⁹ breathing pioneered at the Center for Mindfulness can affect the brain. In a small, soon-to-be-published study, Davidson took brain images of 25 members of a biotech firm who practiced meditation¹⁰ six days a week for eight weeks. He found increased activation¹¹ in the left side of the prefrontal part of the brain, an area associated with lower anxiety, positive emotion and inhibition of the amygdala, the brain's fear center.

最近，Wisconsin-Madison大学的 Richard Davidson发现由心神贯注研究中心首创的一种冥想呼吸法能够对大脑产生影响。在一个小范围进行并即将发表的研究中，Davidson对一家生物技术公司的25名员工的大脑进行了成像，这些员工每周练习冥想6天，共练习了8周。他发现他们大脑额叶前部的左侧激活的情况有所增加，而这一部位与较低的焦虑水平、积极的情绪和大脑恐惧中心扁桃核的抑制相关。